Loraine James – Whatever The Weather

Force any two strangers to speak to each other and, at least on this island, you’re likely to hear conversation about the weather. Dull clouds; heavy winds; a glimpse of sun – such daily iterations are crucial devices for polite conversation; they are the go-to collective experience.  

London-based producer Loraine James seems to understand this. Her new project, released under ambient leaning moniker ‘Whatever The Weather’, trades much of her usual, off-kilter club kicks and snares for beatless, bright pads; each track is titled for a different temperature. Where ‘36°’ evokes a cloudless, scorching summer day; ‘4°’ has saw-tooth synths that hit like gusts of wind.

‘Ambient’ music is deceptively difficult to make; an album conceptualized this way could easily have resulted in a boring wash of beatless throwaways. But James has lost none of her creativity or broad production chops under the new name; ‘Whatever The Weather’ manages to cohesively touch on everything from jungle (‘17°’) and R&B (‘30°’), to ‘90s IDM (‘0°’).

Unusually, James also cites math-rock and emo as inspiration for the project. It’s a unique link, but the signs are there – after all, math rock pioneers Don Caballero (featured on one of James’s recent radio shows) have a song called ‘June Is Finally Here’, a similarly knotty, off-kilter instrumental piece inspired by the weather. American Football did the same on ‘The Summer Ends’ off of their classic self-titled debut, whose lush melodies aren’t too distant from the softer moments here.

It’s also not the first time electronic producers have evoked British weather – Burial’s latest ‘Antidawn’ EP stretches for 40-odd minutes of high-tech grayness – but ‘Whatever The Weather is fortunately distinctly Loraine James; an unexpected new step of diverse experiments, and a perfect companion to a spring as of yet undecided on showing its face.

8/10

Words: Louis Torracinta

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